Scattered
by Snorcackle
Summary: A series of drabbles/one-shots about Matt Anderson and Emily Merchant. For the 30 Day OTP Challenge. Memily pairing, primarily set post s5e06.
1. Forty Seconds

**Prompt**: Day 1: Holding Hands  
**Length**: 426 words  
**Title**: Forty Seconds  
**Disclaimer**: Not my characters (duh, this is fanfiction). Prompt from ericandy's 30 Day OTP Challenge. Disclaimer applies to all subsequent chapters.  
**AN**: This is going to turn into a series of drabbles (maybe a couple of longer one-shots later, if I get ahead of myself) of the Memily pairing from Primeval. I have never felt so immediately drawn to a pairing as I have to them, so, while I thought about writing about characters I've written about before, I just couldn't help myself from writing for these little lovelies (also using them means I can incorporate raptors quite a bit more than usual). All of these prompts are very loosely interpreted.

* * *

It took about five seconds for Emily to remember where she was.

Thirty seconds ago, she had been running away from the nearest raptor, trying her darnedest not to get eaten. Simple enough, really. That would make it just another day at work. As usual, her coworkers were right alongside her.

Twenty-five seconds ago, she caught her boot on a bit of rubble from the demolished door. As she remained as upright as possible, she silently thanked her lucky stars she'd taken a hint from Abby and worn more suitable shoes than those she'd always traveled in. True, she'd battled raptors in high-heeled boots before, but she could still improve her chances of survival to some extent. Couldn't she?

Twenty seconds ago, she was continuing to lose her balance. At the very least, she reminded herself, she hadn't fallen down completely. She still had a chance to make it out alive.

Fifteen seconds ago, she lost her footing entirely. With one last lunge, she tumbled forward, her knees grating on the loose stonework lying around her. As well as she'd done keeping up her balance so far, she really couldn't have hoped for better. Still, the raptor was heading towards her at an alarming speed and, unless, someone else was able to access their EMD faster, she was a goner for certain.

Ten seconds ago, she looked up, the raptor looming ever closer. It was almost directly above her when, quite suddenly, a spark flew over her head, hitting the dinosaur squarely in the chest. She sat staring in a state of shock for half a moment as the creature stumbled backwards, landing on the floor with a resounding thump.

And, five seconds ago, Matt Anderson grabbed her hand.

Now, she had finally recalled all this and came to her senses. With his help, she stood up rather quickly; surprisingly so, really, given how nasty that fall had just been. No matter. She'd been in more dangerous situations.

It took another five seconds yet to realize she was still holding his hand and that he didn't seem to mind. If anything it seemed as though he might even be _enjoying_ it. Well, then. Matt Anderson, the master of controlling his emotions, couldn't even move as his hand grasped hers. Maybe, she thought, saying he didn't mind would be an understatement.

Another five seconds passed and Emily smiled as the others ran back towards them because, in all honesty, she didn't mind, either.


	2. And Thus Time Fades

**Prompt**: Cuddling somewhere  
**Length**: 281 words  
**Title**: And thus time fades

* * *

Matt Anderson was a lot of things.

He was a soldier, in a way. He was committed to his purpose. He was thorough in his quest and always tried to retain control over his emotions (although, admittedly, he'd begun to fail in that respect as of late). Yes, he was certainly many different things, and he could probably list them in a book if he so desired, although he couldn't imagine why he would.

Of those things, one of them was definitely _not_ a cuddler.

It wasn't that he detested physical displays of affection. Rather, he had priorities. Could enough time be spared for a "thank goodness you're alive" hug? Of course. Could the world wait two seconds for him to kiss someone good-bye? Well, it hadn't complained yet. But cuddling, wherein people could just sit for hours with their arms wrapped around each other, was not in his repertoire.

Yet, for some reason he couldn't explain, he was rather enjoying where he was right now, with Emily Merchant burrowed delightfully into his side as they talked. She spoke of her past: of the harsh realities of Victorian London, of her time popping through anomalies –_gateways_, she would still call them occasionally- and of the little things she would miss every so often. Matt couldn't add much: the future was bleak; that was all there really was to it.

When the conversation became slow, Matt contentedly looked down to see Emily's eyes flutter, beginning to close. He continued to let her sink into him, accepting the sleep which was always so desperately welcome after a day –and a lifetime- of chasing time.


	3. Fascination

**Prompt:** Gaming/Watching a movie  
**Word Count:** 240  
**Title: **Fascination  
**AN:** This is really sappy, so, sorry. Tomorrow's will be better I think, depending on how much I get done of it tonight.

* * *

Emily had seen many things in her travels, and, if no one minded her saying so, she found herself to be a rather quick learner. She knew about antibiotics. She could detect anomalies with a radio. She adapted from the impractical Victorian fashion she had grown up with at an almost alarming rate.

She was still rather fascinated by the television.

Once Connor had explained the mechanics, of course, she was able to wrap her head around the idea. It wasn't as though she simply _couldn't_ understand it. Nevertheless, she felt a certain excitement whenever one of those silly flat boxes lit up and started to play a dancing picture, complete with bright colors and crystal clear noises.

Now, of course, she couldn't tell if the excitement she felt stemmed from the shining screen itself, or from the human sitting next to her. If she was being totally honest, it was probably the latter. The movie playing out before her was somewhat tedious (a simple comedy about workplace hullaballoo) and yet she could feel her heart speed up to beat in tandem with Matt's as she laid her head against his chest. The plot of the movie had long since become inconsequential, and, instead, she focused on the rumble in his torso as he laughed, laughing with him, savoring the feel of his breath rising and falling.

No movie could be half so fascinating as that.


	4. Admiring the Architecture

**Prompt(s):** On a date + Kissing  
**Word Count:** 747  
**Title:** Admiring the Architecture  
**AN:** This is sort of a double feature to make up for missing a day. I was rather busy yesterday and figured that I could combine these two prompts, and if I wake up at some ungodly hour tomorrow maybe I'll redo it so kissing will have its own chapter. Enjoy!

* * *

Emily's last marriage hadn't been preceded by a courtship. It had been business, nothing more, nothing less. And, of course, she hadn't much cared for her husband. To be fair, he did try to kill her at one point. She ought to be allowed some chance at true romance before she met her end.

As for Matt, his knowledge of dating was limited. In the future –his past, rather- dating had been rendered useless. He'd barely been able to survive as it was, without even thinking of _continuing his genetic line_. Even if he'd wanted to, there hadn't been a whole lot of people around to see. Since coming to the present day, he'd been rather busy trying to save the world as it were. Fortunately, the world seemed pretty safe for the moment, and so maybe, just maybe, he could take some time for himself, and see what romance could be like.

Therefore, and with quite some prodding on Jess's part, the boy from the future and the girl from the past found themselves on a date.

Of course, according to Jess, it wasn't a _proper_ date: if you'd asked her, and possibly if you hadn't, a _proper_ date would involve dinner, perhaps a nice walk, and being dropped off on your front doorstep. Rather, _this_ date featured an extensive walk through downtown London, pointing out all of things that had long since changed since the Victorian era, and pointing out all the things that would inevitably change again by the time that Matt was born. They didn't need to talk much outside of that; honestly, they knew so much about each other's lives that the small conversations that normally populated these sorts of outings seemed pointless.

This was nice, this was fun, Matt thought as he wrapped his arm around Emily to protect her from the chilly air of the London evening. He hadn't had _fun_ in a long time. It seemed so easy, laughing at the ever-changing architecture and fashions. Even the night sky itself had changed and would change again.

Emily, too, found the whole situation rather exciting. She'd seen London many a time since passing through her first anomaly, but this seemed truly special for some reason. She'd never gotten a chance to truly appreciate it, and she'd yet to do so with someone quite so pleasant.

At least one aspect of the date met Jess' definition of the word to some extent: at the very end of the evening, Matt dropped Emily off on her doorstep. To be fair, it was also _his_ doorstep, as he wanted her there to be sure she was safe until they were all absolutely positive that Ethan –_Patrick_- was gone for good. Still, he offered her what was meant to be a chaste kiss good-night.

In a brief loss of control, however, the kiss quickly escalated, moving from a swift press of one pair of lips to another, to a sloppy, desperate attempt to simply inhale one another. This was far more passion than either had experienced in quite some time, if ever. True, they had kissed before, but it hadn't been like this. _This_ was not just a calm kiss good-bye. _This_ was not just a "thank goodness you're alright" peck on the lips. _This_ was a floodgate being opened, allowing one another one brief moment to see inside, rather than just a glimpse of the forts they held up so well. They stopped rather sooner than either one would have liked. For Emily's part, she was rather unsure of the situation and how to proceed; for Matt's, he was worried that, should he continue, he might defile her on the spot, which seemed to him improper for a woman who had not spent a night out with a man since before her husband died. To put the kiss back to the way it was intended, Matt left a quiet peck on Emily's cheek, thereby slightly quieting the electricity they felt coursing through their veins. Yes, for the moment, it would have to suffice to admire the buildings as they stood, rather than taking the full tour.

And thus, after a rather lovely night and one good, unfiltered snog, the two retired, one to a bed, the other to a couch, both somewhat unsatisfied with the evening's end.


	5. Backwards

**Prompt:** Wearing each other's clothes  
**Word Length:** 111  
**Title:** Backwards

* * *

"Alright," Matt said, trudging over barefoot to Emily, "you win." He cracked half a smile as she laughed at his ridiculous attire: the strapless black dress was one she had worn herself, at Jenny's wedding (although when _she_ had worn it, the zipper would close all the way up her back), and the low heels hanging from his hands were on loan from Connor's aunt, as she was the only one anyone in the ARC could find with close to the appropriate shoe size.

"Well, then," Emily whispered as she tiptoed up to give him a peck on the cheek, "now you understand why I hate investigating anomalies at formal events."


	6. Conventional Clothing

**Prompt:** Cosplaying  
**Word Count:** 474  
**Title:** Conventional Clothing  
**AN:** For those of you unfamiliar with the characters they're dressed as, I strongly suggest you look them up. Also not my best chapter. I'll have more free time tomorrow so that chapter will probably be a bit better written.

* * *

Well, this certainly felt silly.

This wasn't one of those things either Matt or Emily had planned. To be perfectly honest, this entire catastrophe was _Connor's _idea -but, of course, as with most catastrophes the ARC team dealt with, who else's idea could it have possibly been? It had started with a simple question of courtesy: as Emily felt she didn't know Connor well yet, it seemed as though the polite thing to do would be to ask him about his interests. It escalated rather quickly from there, to a discussion of favorite television programs, to the sudden revelation that Connor was rather a fan of comic conventions, and even further to the suggestion that the entire team should have costumes on hold _just in case_ ("of what?" was the next question from Emily, to which the answer was, "just in case of an anomaly sighting _at_ a comic convention).

The worst possible discovery was that Connor's suggestion did, in fact, take shape in reality.

It was a rather strange anomaly: it was from some time in the past, post-Jurassic but well before humans were the dominant species. Really, the only creatures coming through rather resembled sloths and had thus far been mistaken as robotic stuffed animals being sold as advertisements for the latest series of _Doctor Who?_ At the very least, they could say that this anomaly had no bloodshed, but Matt and Emily still found themselves stranded at the convention for several hours simply trying to round up the little critters.

With some convincing on Connor's part, at least Matt and Emily both had decently designed costumes. For Matt's part, a heavy black leather jacket, plain maroon jumper, and simple trousers allowed him to pull off a fairly convincing resemblance of the Ninth Doctor. As for Emily (after being assured that the original character did, in fact, wear something other than animal skins), a rather caricature green jacket and burgundy trousers helped her to complete the look of the same show's Leela.

Of course, these were not ideal outfits for chasing down sloths, but little else could be done. It had become a matter of finishing up the operation as quietly as possible.

"This is absolutely ridiculous," Matt muttered under his breath as the two rounded a corner, revealing a crowd of men in trench coats and bow ties and women in union jacks and blonde wigs. "You can't hardly _move_ in these clothes, let alone try to convince a whole swarm of science-fiction fanatics that the toys they're playing with are millennia-old creatures."

"Speak for yourself," Emily responded, smiling. "I'd like to remind you that I've battled raptors in heels and no less than four layers of clothing. These are nothing." She gave his hand a squeeze before rushing into the crowd, pulling him with her and hoping for the best.


	7. An Appetite for Culture Shock

**Prompt:** Shopping  
**Word Count:** 218  
**Title:** An Appetite for Culture Shock

* * *

Something about walking through the automatic doors took Emily's breath away temporarily. Perhaps it was the sudden bright light, or the chilly air surrounding her, or even the loud noises of perfectly calculated music blaring through the speakers.

For Matt's part, he was mostly amused that, in three months, she had never stepped foot in a supermarket.

In her defense, of course, being a member of the ARC team involved quite a bit of time spent on the job. It wasn't as though they'd had lots of time for personal matters, such as milk or cheese or anything that could spoil within a month. Mostly, she'd noticed, the small apartment she shared with Matt was stocked with granola bars, coffee, and bread.

Still, it was entertaining, watching her dart about this enormous store, totally in awe of the advances that had been made since the 1860s. Matt cracked a smile as Emily dashed towards the vegetables in astonishment that _winter_ vegetables could be made readily available in the middle of _summer_. Time travel had prepared her for quite a bit, but this wonder seemed to have escaped her notice before.

An hour later, the two emerged from the store, bags full of groceries and smiles plastered to their faces as they anticipated pushing the boundaries of Victorian cooking.


	8. A Game of Chess

**Prompt:** Hanging out with Friends  
**Word Count**: 349  
**Title:** A Game of Chess

* * *

The problem with being a member of a team that dealt with nearly unpredictable and highly dangerous holes in time was, of course, that they were nearly unpredictable. Some days would go by with hardly a sign that anomalies could even be plausible, and other days would present many creature incursions at once to be dealt with.

Today, it seemed, would be one of the former.

Not that there wasn't work to be done, of course, but since Phillip's death had terminated Connor's work with New Dawn, and since the destruction of the super-anomaly meant that everything else just seemed a bit too _easy_, the team seemed to have quite a bit of time to spare today. A game of chess seemed like it might do just the trick.

Thus, Matt and Emily, along with Connor, Abby, and Becker, arranged themselves in a haphazard circle on the floor behind Jess' workspace, much to her annoyance. Of course, they had a few too many people for the game, and divided themselves up into teams: Matt, Emily, and Becker versus Connor and Abby, who in turn had a little bit of begrudged help from Jess every so often. What the game eventually boiled down to was Emily versus Connor, each one getting a little bit of help from Matt and Abby, respectively, while Becker slowly meandered his way towards Jess' workstation.

As Emily's turns played out, she would often figure out an obvious solution rather quickly, or at least relatively speaking. On the off occasions she that she would get stuck, she would turn lean her head over to Matt, and he would whisper a suggestion into her ear, sometimes followed by an almost-silent compliment. She gladly take his advice, smiling all the while.

The game seemed to wrap itself up within two hours, with a clear victory for Matt and Emily (by this point, Becker had all but forgotten they'd even been playing chess in the first place). Free time at the ARC was quite a rarity, indeed, but, as far as rarities went, it was a rather fun one.


End file.
